Eden Lake

[DylanDog]

Anyone caught this one yet? I guess it's in limited release. I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it's awesome, but on the other, I feel like everything in it, I've seen somewhere else. It's like a mish-mash of old ideas, but used to new effect .You'll see traces of (obviously) "Kids", "Who Can Kill A Child?", "Last House on the Left", "Deliverance" and other horror/survivalist movies.

A young couple plan a romantic getaway at a small lake in the woods, but upon arrival are almost immediately annoyed, then harassed and finally terrorized by a small gang of children. No ages are explicitly given, but the oldest seems to be in the 14 or 15 range and youngest maybe 12.

Much of the violence is on par with plenty of other films you've already seen, except of course now it's perpetuated by (and I don't think I'd be giving away too much if I even said some was against) children.

I've complained in the past about the increasing level of violence against children in recent movies, but here I think it's not done at all for shock effect and is instead used as a method of reinforcing the movie's themes. It's used to show the ultimate worst case scenario effects of peer pressure, lack of discipline and compassion from parent's and other authority figures ("they're not my kids") and even refusing to accept responsibility and admitting that your kid might just be seriously fucked up ("they're only children!), even when the evidence is staring you in the face.

I think the movie moves along at a brisk pace and the level of tension would normally be considered good, but again, I just felt like I'd seen it all before so it didn't really have me on the edge of my seat. A less jaded viewer likely would have been, though. There isn't too much extreme gore, but there is some nice wound effects where necessary. And the young couple never really get a chance to do the deed either, so don't expect much skin.

Still, even though I'm on the fence a bit right now, I definitely think it's worth checking out if it's in your area.

Oh yeah, one thing that was hard for me was the gang leader's accent. I could barely make out a word he was saying half the time!